01 Oct How We Find Belo’s Newest Campaign Stupid

JUAN SAYS: There are many ways to present your case, your advertising case for that matter. There are so many ways to promote your brand creatively. But to use someone’s misfortune or pain to push your objective, is beyond TACKY. We found a billboard of Sunshine Dizon as we traversed the daily and EDSA traffic and found this rather silly. Sure we felt Sunshine’s pain when news broke out of her husband’s alleged infidelity, and if this were true, we are on Sunshine’s side. We do NOT condone infidelity nor justify any person’s wrongful actions just because. We still believe in the integrity of marriage and the commitment that two people made in front of the eyes of men and God. But to actually use it in a campaign to lose weight, does not exactly leave a nice taste on our mouths.

PLACE ADVERTISEMENTS HERE

We know that there will be a good number of people who will disagree with us with this post, but what do we care? We just want to say our honest opinion on the matter of taking care of oneself within the bounds of marriage — physically. We have observed that there are a number of wives who forget who they are and what they are when they enter the union. Their lives have revolved around their lives as wives and mothers, forgetting that once upon a time, they were strong and beautiful women who had a personality, the face, and a brain. They have become so absorbed with being a good wife and a good mother that they have the tendency (or they completely did) to forget to take care of themselves. In their heads, thinking of eating the right kind of food to be healthy (and thereby keep off the pounds) is a rather selfish act. These beautiful women have turned from looking like princesses to well, haggard marshmallow men. Reality is, the supposed “security” that marriage or a long time relationship has pushed us to complacency. We have the tendency to believe that just because we are married to someone, we have every right to be well, someone who they did not actually expect to morph into after marriage.

We know that the issue of weight is rather a sensitive mother for those who have borne children. We understand that it was never easy to keep off the pounds that seem to be sprouting at places that we never knew existed in the human anatomy. And to forget oneself, how beautiful you are from the inside and out, is just in our opinion, a total disrespect for the person you truly are. There is nothing wrong with putting make up on, no matter if you are just bringing your child to school, and there is truly nothing wrong if you choose to eat right and find the time to exercise to keep the blood pumping through out your body. There is truly nothing wrong making yourself beautiful for you, and even if it is for your husband. The latter has been a constant debate among our circle, and truth be told, after a series of banters, we have to succumb to the truth. There is really nothing wrong if you choose to be beautiful, if you continuously choose yourself and be the person who you truly are even when inside the marriage.

Allowing yourself to be fat (with all the many exercise regimens that every studio, gym and what have you is offering) is already a sin. Much more letting yourself slip to ugly-dom (well, hello there Belo) is borderline sacrilege. You do not owe it to anybody, sure, we are advocates of that. But at the very least, you still owe it to yourself. Who gave you the right to stop eating healthy? Who gave you the permission to let yourself bloat into a boat and ignoring the pounds as they come? Who told you that it is okay to forget taking care of yourself, just like how you were before you entered the marriage?

This campaign by the Belo Group says otherwise. Forget the pain? And just be sexy? Revenge is just too overrated. Why can’t we be beautiful from the very start, pain or not?

Making someone realise how beautiful we are (with our new found bodies aka weight loss) is just a tad too late. There was a reason why he married you in the first place, and there too was a reason why you said yes to him when he popped the question (well, we are hoping that it wasn’t because you were pregnant and he had no choice). And if we continue on to being who we are — body, mind and soul — at the very least, should the shit hit the fan, we still have ourselves intact and whole.

Let this be a reminder then. Looking good for yourself, much less looking good for the person you chose to spend the rest of your life with (inside and out — kasama ugali. Bawal ang ugaling basura), isn’t selfish. It isn’t a choice nor an option. It is not shallow. It is us, loving ourselves. The way we look (no matter how shallow you may think it is) is a true reflection of the lives we live. One can’t deny the positive aura that surrounds a happy and content person. Happiness doesn’t come from other people, it comes from within. You are happy if you are, and believe us when we say, no matter how haggard your life has become (from juggling motherhood to being a wife to a career woman), the aura you give doesn’t lie.